A case for commuting to church on Sunday mornings

I pastor a church of commuters. In fact, I'm a commuter myself, and it's something I've been thinking about recently. Here's a partial case for commuting to church on Sunday mornings.


By the way, I'm bucking the most prevalent counsel in today's church world -- that you should go to church close to your house. There's certainly a lot of wisdom in weaving together your church community with your school, neighborhood, social, and recreational community. However, Jesus never subscribed to that recipe.

In Luke 11, Jesus lauds the "Queen of the South"  (i.e., the Queen of Sheba according to 1 Kings 10:1) because she came from "the ends of the earth" to hear the wisdom of Solomon. That is, the Queen traveled from present-day Yemen some 1400 miles to hear Solomon's legendary wisdom. That's being intentional!

We might ask, what would have been the most convenient, comfortable, and face-saving thing for the Queen of Sheba to do? Stay home and seek wisdom within the circles of people with whom she was already doing life. But faith beckoned her to travel.

Jesus adds, "And something greater than Solomon is here." So, if the Queen would commute 1400 miles to hear Solomon, and Jesus is greater than Solomon, people should be willing to go to any lengths to worship him.

In these few sentences (Luke 11:29-32) and elsewhere, Jesus implies:

  • When someone is intentional about a life of worship, he/she will travel or commute if necessary.
  • If someone isn't intentional about responding to God, it doesn't matter where his/her church is.
  • The church that is the most intertwined with your school, neighborhood, social, and recreational circles may not be the one that promotes the most faith in you -- or your family, for that matter. It may simply be the most convenient and comfortable. Or it may be too full of people who are just like you to spur you on toward real transformation in Christ; you may need a community with diversity.
  • There is no substitute for intentionality. Period.
Especially in today's world, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for where you should go to church. Go to the church that promotes the greatest faith in you (and your family). If necessary, commute. On Sunday mornings, Jesus is smiling upon those cars that are carrying commuters intentional about worshiping him.

Comments

  1. Patrick WattersAugust 10, 2015 at 2:01 PM

    Commute (go) to church if you must, just remember to BE the Church where you live the rest of your life.

    ReplyDelete

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